Welcome to Module 2, Cardiovascular Practice Management. My name is Nikki Smith, Director of Member Services for MedAxiom. Here are my disclosures. Here are our learning objectives. Understanding patient-centered care and the principles of putting patients first, recognizing the significance of small gestures and effective communication in patient care, exploring the various clinic roles and understanding their responsibilities, and identifying how each staff member contributes to patient care overall, efficiency, quality, and the importance of these values to job satisfaction. The healthcare industry has started to use the term client, consumer, or customer. The reason for this is to embed the concept that patients have a choice, and that makes perfect sense from a business standpoint. But do all of our patients really have a choice? Not really. It's important to remember that the definition of a patient is one who suffers. Most patients come to seek healthcare when they're ill. They need help. They have a problem. It's important to remember that as patients walk through your door, not all patients are choosing to be sick. They're coming to you for care. Some patients may have a choice about place and provider, but not all. But everyone that walks through your door requires care. It will be up to you to lead your team. Once again, you'll set the example for your staff, practice, or department. With all the demands on your time and the responsibilities that you carry, your focus can quickly become about getting through the day, accomplishing the tasks, and meeting the needs of your staff. But your primary focus should ultimately land on what's best for the patient. It's important to remember that we're here to take care of others. We lead teams and departments that help those who are feeling unwell, those worried about test results and managing their health needs in the midst of busy lives, including family and work obligations. They come to us looking for support, care, expertise, and guidance. It's the small things that stand out to patients. Here's a video that you'll be able to find in the additional resource section. Please take the time to watch this video. It speaks to how our patients come to us, what they're feeling, and how we need to respond. Because nobody says it as well as our patients do. This video will outline how a health care worker actually became a patient and how she realized the impact of her care and her caring was every day to patients. So again, I hope you take the time to watch this. How do we put our patients first? Here are five key principles published by the Change Forum that can be a place to start for you and your teams. Remember, it's all about the patient, not you. It's easy to forget that patients are people, but we can't. We have to listen and care. Manage your moods. Don't affect others with your bad feelings. Moods are contagious, so don't bring them to work. Connecting means everything. So talk to your patients and speak with heart. Take the extra couple of seconds to be present, to be personable, and be patient. Be mindful of your words, courtesy, and consideration count. Be careful to not let your busyness make you come across as uncaring. And patients can be difficult and demanding, but you're the professional and they may be significantly stressed. Crank up your care factor. Compassion is not an option. Lead in and care. Research suggests that showing compassion is good not only for patients, but it's also good for those who show it. So remember, with all that you're responsible for and all the hustle and bustle that happens day in and day out, the most important rule to remember is that patients are the priority. They come first each and every day. Now let's discuss the staff and roles needed in your clinic to provide quality care. Not all clinics are staffed the same way or have the same roles inside them. However, there are some basics that all clinics need to have to provide quality of care. So with those functions in mind, we outlined a staffing complement that provides for each of these functions and ensures that the correct role is performing the correct task. The next few slides are loaded with content, so please take the time to read through. I'm not going to speak to every bullet point or every section on each slide, but again, there's a lot of information that's there for you, so take the time to read through and digest. Having the right role performing the right responsibilities yields several benefits. The work is performed efficiently, collaboratively, and everyone is in their role, so they should be comfortable, which leads to quality of care. Each staff member is working within their skill set and scope of license. This allows the clinic to meet best practice standards. Best practice standards and quality lead to good patient outcomes. This structure allows your team to function optimally, which leads to greater job satisfaction. Let's review. We've added these slides as a reference for you, so please revisit them as needed. Practice staff has both non-clinical and clinical staff. Let's look at the non-clinical staff roles first. Now, not all titles are going to be the same, so we outlined some high-level staffing nomenclature. So we have front office staff, surgical schedulers, back office staff, office managers, and practice managers. Here's the list of what are usually considered front office responsibilities. As you can see, these roles keep the office flowing. They maintain the day-to-day schedule. They assist with the documentation as needed for billing. They answer phones, and they're the first voice or face that the patient hears or sees. Surgical schedulers fill the following roles. They assist our patients with scheduling tests and procedures. They help keep the chart up-to-date with results. They maintain the list of patients waiting for follow-ups. In essence, they keep patients from falling through the cracks. And in their free time, they assist front office staff. Some practices are fortunate to have staff that handle many of the important administrative functions within a practice. This ensures that clinical staff, leaders, and front office staff are able to remain focused on patients. They're able to continue the day-to-day operations without getting pulled away into some of these other tasks and duties that are important, especially for our physician partners, but not as important for our patients. Different practices, depending on their size, require different levels of leadership to manage the practice and lead staff. Here are some of the functions that belong to those roles. Now let's review the clinical roles in a cardiovascular practice. We have medical assistants, physician office nurses, registered nurses, lead RN for the practice, and advanced practice providers. The medical assistant is often the first clinical member that our patients see. Their patient-centeredness and competence in collecting the vital signs and other pertinent information set the stage for a good visit. Obviously, that's not all that they do. You can see the list here. The physician office nurse, LPN or LVN, and often the RN, share many of the same responsibilities. However, there are tasks that RNs are better suited for due to their licensure. It's important that your team have identified these and have worked out the allocation appropriately. Often state licensure websites or the Department of Health can help with this if you have questions. Depending on the size of your practice, you may have a lead nurse for each subspecialty or a lead nurse for a certain area that then reports up to a nurse manager. Or you may have only one lead or manager for all clinical staff. For that reason, we've listed out these responsibilities together. Again, depending on how large your practice is and how you're set up, these responsibilities may be split up, shared, or fall to one person. Every role in the clinic is an important team member and a contributor to the patient experience, whether they physically see or speak to patients or not. For example, someone that may not see a patient may be responsible for collecting information so that the patient is billed correctly, so that the documentation gets put in the chart correctly. It's still very important, even though they're not patient-facing. As the manager, be sure your team understands their role and the importance of their role to the patient and their health. Thank you for listening to this module. If you have any questions, please reach out to academy at medaxiam.com.

patient-centered care

communication

clinic staff roles

teamwork

patient welfare